Telecommunication networks provide many types of communications to its end user. The traditional mode of communication is a voice call. When a caller places a call to a called party, a switch in the network receives a call request (e.g., DTMF) from the caller's phone. The switch then routes the call request through the network until the call reaches the terminal of the called party.
Another type of communication is text messaging. Text messaging has become as popular or more popular than voice calls in many mobile (or wireless) networks. One example of text messaging is Short Message Service (SMS), which is a set of communication protocols allowing the exchange of short text messages (i.e., 160 characters or less) between devices. While the term “text message” traditionally referred to text-only messages sent using SMS, it has been extended to include multimedia messages, such as images, video, sound content, etc. The multimedia messages may be sent using Multimedia Message Service (MMS) protocol.
To send an SMS message, for example, the sender enters text into his/her end user device, and the device encodes the text into an SMS message. The end user device then sends the SMS message to a serving element in the network (e.g., a Mobile Switching Center (MSC)) through the appropriate signaling protocol. The serving element then forwards the SMS message to an SMS Center (SMSC) where the message is stored and queued for delivery to its intended recipient.
Regardless of the mode of communication chosen by an end user, service providers offer many services. One service provided for voice calls is caller identification (caller ID). A caller ID service transmits the caller's number and the caller's name (if available) to the called party's terminal while the call is being set up but before the call is answered (i.e., during the ringing signal for the call). Thus, the called party is able to see who is calling before answering the call. These and other services generate revenue for the service providers, so they are continually trying to find new services to offer to their customers.